lily
12-17-2007, 11:44 PM
Link (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/17/AR2007121700210.html?hpid=moreheadlines)
Palestinians Raise $7.4 Billion
By ANNE GEARAN
The Associated Press
Monday, December 17, 2007; 2:45 PM
PARIS -- Led by Europe, international donors on Monday pledged $7.4 billion
over three years to help stateless Palestinians as new peace talks begin
with Israel, yet old Mideast fights over disputed land and freedom of
movement shadowed the largest show of support for the Palestinians in more
than a decade.
World leaders at the conference urged Israel to ease limits on Palestinian
movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, following up on a warning from the
World Bank that without an easing of the sweeping physical and
administrative restrictions donors may be wasting their money.
Israel has been reluctant to lift scores of roadblocks in the West Bank,
many of them put there by the Israeli military amid the street violence and
suicide bombings by Palestinian militants that followed collapse of the last
peace talks seven years ago.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas used the session to demand that Israel
freeze Jewish settlements without excuses or exception. Palestinians are
outraged by Israel's announcement, within days of the formal start of the
new peace effort at a U.S.-backed peace conference last month, that it
planned hundreds of new Jewish houses in the West Bank.
"It's the moment of truth," Abbas told some 90 donor countries and
international organizations gathered Monday in Paris. "I'll be eager to
implement all our commitments," Abbas said, and "I expect them to stop all
settlement activities, without exceptions."
West Bank settlements are an emotional issue on both sides, and a practical
problem for peacemakers trying to draw boundaries of a Palestinian state by
the end of 2008. Additional Jewish homes on land claimed by the Palestinians
complicate the task, and the latest announcement from Israel has undermined
Palestinian confidence in the infant talks.
It was the first meeting for Israelis and Palestinians since peace talks
formally began with a brief, rancorous session last week.
Israel pledged no money, but the chief Israeli negotiator outlined hopes for
cooperation with Palestinians.
"We need you to know that Palestinian welfare and Israeli security are not
competing interests; they are interconnected ones," Israeli Foreign Minister
Tzipi Livni told delegates. "We have no desire to control Palestinian lives.
We do not want the image of Israel in the Palestinian mind to be a soldier
at a checkpoint."
International peacemakers meeting on the sidelines of the conference said
movement must be freer and expressed dismay at the new housing plan. The
group that includes the United Nations, United States, European Union and
Russia also said the humanitarian situation in the sealed-off Gaza Strip is
urgent.
The language of a statement issued by the group was unusually sharp, and
contrasted with the celebratory atmosphere as organizers tallied the
pledges.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the donor conference was the "last
hope" to salvage the Palestinian government from bankruptcy. The pledges
topped the Palestinians' own expectations.
Palestinians Raise $7.4 Billion
By ANNE GEARAN
The Associated Press
Monday, December 17, 2007; 2:45 PM
PARIS -- Led by Europe, international donors on Monday pledged $7.4 billion
over three years to help stateless Palestinians as new peace talks begin
with Israel, yet old Mideast fights over disputed land and freedom of
movement shadowed the largest show of support for the Palestinians in more
than a decade.
World leaders at the conference urged Israel to ease limits on Palestinian
movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, following up on a warning from the
World Bank that without an easing of the sweeping physical and
administrative restrictions donors may be wasting their money.
Israel has been reluctant to lift scores of roadblocks in the West Bank,
many of them put there by the Israeli military amid the street violence and
suicide bombings by Palestinian militants that followed collapse of the last
peace talks seven years ago.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas used the session to demand that Israel
freeze Jewish settlements without excuses or exception. Palestinians are
outraged by Israel's announcement, within days of the formal start of the
new peace effort at a U.S.-backed peace conference last month, that it
planned hundreds of new Jewish houses in the West Bank.
"It's the moment of truth," Abbas told some 90 donor countries and
international organizations gathered Monday in Paris. "I'll be eager to
implement all our commitments," Abbas said, and "I expect them to stop all
settlement activities, without exceptions."
West Bank settlements are an emotional issue on both sides, and a practical
problem for peacemakers trying to draw boundaries of a Palestinian state by
the end of 2008. Additional Jewish homes on land claimed by the Palestinians
complicate the task, and the latest announcement from Israel has undermined
Palestinian confidence in the infant talks.
It was the first meeting for Israelis and Palestinians since peace talks
formally began with a brief, rancorous session last week.
Israel pledged no money, but the chief Israeli negotiator outlined hopes for
cooperation with Palestinians.
"We need you to know that Palestinian welfare and Israeli security are not
competing interests; they are interconnected ones," Israeli Foreign Minister
Tzipi Livni told delegates. "We have no desire to control Palestinian lives.
We do not want the image of Israel in the Palestinian mind to be a soldier
at a checkpoint."
International peacemakers meeting on the sidelines of the conference said
movement must be freer and expressed dismay at the new housing plan. The
group that includes the United Nations, United States, European Union and
Russia also said the humanitarian situation in the sealed-off Gaza Strip is
urgent.
The language of a statement issued by the group was unusually sharp, and
contrasted with the celebratory atmosphere as organizers tallied the
pledges.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the donor conference was the "last
hope" to salvage the Palestinian government from bankruptcy. The pledges
topped the Palestinians' own expectations.